I’d like to take a few minutes to discuss a few things basketball.

First, I’d like to correct an error that the sports section made not once but twice in today’s paper. We said that senior Maureece Rice was held scoreless for the first time in 68 games and since his freshman year. This is not true. Rice also did not score in GW’s loss to Binghamton University in mid-December. So I apologize to Maureece for this mistake.

I’d also like to take the time to respond to a bunch of different people who submitted comments to The Hatchet after Monday’s paper, which featured a dejected Karl Hobbs on the cover and a package on Joe McKeown and his 500th win on the inside. We got a good amount of feedback from people who were disappointed that we made “just another men’s loss” the main story and buried Coach Joe’s achievement on the inside. I must admit, even as an editor and someone who played a part in that decision making, that I agree. It was a mistake on our part to not give McKeown more prominence. Five-hundred wins is an extraordinary feat and one that deserved more celebration than we gave him.

The only explanation I can give readers is that the decision to do it the way we did had to do with two things: timeliness and the availability of good cover art. The men’s game was Sunday afternoon while the women’s was Saturday night. In addition, we did not send a reporter or photographer to Pittsburgh for the women’s game against Duquesne (which I also will admit was a mistake). Some of what dictates a front page is how good a picture exists to accompany a story. In addition to this, it is important to note that because McKeown’s 500th win came on the road, no one at the game except for the GW program was celebrating.

I covered the women’s team for two years and, even though I’ve moved over to the men’s beat, I still catch every women’s game I can. Despite the fact that it was criticism of both my publication and me, I was actually happy to see the letters to the editor and blog responses as well as just verbal complaints about how we had downplayed Coach McKeown. So it makes me wonder…why all the love for Coach McKeown but still low attendance at games? It is up this year, but not nearly to the extent the team deserves. On Sunday, the athletic department will be honoring McKeown for his milestone. I’m sure it would mean a lot to him if he had a lot of student support there. And you can be sure that you will see coverage from that game placed very prominently in Monday’s paper.

Now on to some more women’s basketball news. Senior Sarah-Jo Lawrence, who has been a key component of McKeown’s teams the past four season, was one of five named to the 2008 ESPN the Magazine’s Academic All-District II first team. Basically what that means is that Lawrence is one of the top scholar-athletes in the region, which also includes Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and New Jersey. She is also eligible to be named an Academic All-American and is one of 40 up for that award. Being an athlete on any team is difficult, especially one like basketball, where the squad is constantly traveling for almost five months. Congratulations to SJL on her dedication to both school and basketball.